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AN INTANGIBLE CLAIM: OKLAHOMA TERRITORY AND THE VICTORIAN DIVORCE CRISIS by JENNIFER DENISE LYNCH A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY University of Central Oklahoma Graduate College Spring 2016 !i Preface This study focuses on the cultural phenomenon that occurred in the United States known as the Victorian Divorce Crisis, and the communities known as “Divorce Mills,” which were often blamed for the situation. The divorce mill that developed in Oklahoma Territory’s capital city of Guthrie played a role in the spreading panic, as well as encouraging a dialogue about divorce’s increased presence and bringing an end to the crisis. The unique situation in Guthrie was able to happen because two months prior to the opening for settlement of the Unassigned Lands, later becoming Oklahoma Territory, with the Land Rush in April of 1889, the release of A Report on Marriage and Divorce in the United States, 1867 to 1886, brought divorce statistics to the populace for the first time. While other divorce mills had thrived prior to Guthrie, the report brought national attention to the havens and the issue of migratory divorce. The debate that fueled the Divorce Crisis was still in its infancy in the 1880s, but with the growth of a mill in Oklahoma Territory and an increase in public knowledge about divorce statistics, its soon escalated into a national movement among factions either for or against the institution of divorce. The escalation eventually led to the meeting of the National Congress on Uniform Divorce Laws in 1906, which signified an end of the Victorian Divorce Crisis because of the movement’s inability to become nationally adopted. My interest in the topic of divorce mills began while I was working as the associate curator of the Oklahoma Territorial Museum in Guthrie, Oklahoma. While !ii reorganizing the museum’s vertical files one afternoon, I stumbled across Linda Wilson’s 1997 article for the Chronicles of Oklahoma, “Helen Churchill Candee: Author of an Oklahoma Romance.” My minor as an undergraduate was in women’s studies, so anything related to women’s history has always been of interest to me. I read Wilson’s piece about a woman from New York who came to Oklahoma Territory in 1895 specifically to file for a divorce from her husband. She had done so because she was unable to petition in her home jurisdiction and therefore had to find another willing to hear her plea. She in turn chose Guthrie because it was a notable divorce mill at the time. This was the first time I had ever seen the term, “Divorce Mill.” It was a difficult concept to grasp, and left me full of inquiries: What was a divorce mill? What constituted one? How widespread was the trend of migratory divorce? The more I researched the topic, the more difficult it became to answer those questions. I began my research with Glenda Riley’s 1991 book, Divorce: An American Tradition. This is the most inclusive book about the history of divorce available. In her survey of American divorce, I read about early colonial divorce practices through the emergence of western divorce mills, and discovered other havens such as Salt Lake City and Sioux Falls, both of which thrived during their territorial eras. In regards to Oklahoma Territory, although she dedicated a large portion of her research to the region, Glenda Riley stated that Guthrie was arguably not a mill because it did not have the numbers to support the notion of a large migratory population coming to the area to seek divorce. It is contemporarily known that many of the statistics for estimated migratory couples seeking divorces were inflated. Although Oklahoma !iii Territory may not be considered one of the largest mills to exist during the Victorian Era, an estimated one-thousand divorces occurred in the city of Guthrie alone, which makes for a significant divorced population. In addition to what I consider to be a significant number of divorce cases in the area, I argue that the dialogue about divorce created by the events in Oklahoma Territory was important to the national history of divorce and its development. There lies the area’s significance and its ability to be considered a divorce mill, even if it was not of the largest scale. The issue of historical representation of the divorce mill trend is that using a number to decide what constitutes a divorce mill is problematic because it is subjective. All of the sources later discussed about Oklahoma Territory differ in opinion about whether or not it was a mill, and they all rely on numbers for proof. But there is not a control for determining what number of migratory divorces filed dictates a mill, making all evidence malleable to one’s argument. For the purpose of this thesis, a divorce mill is defined as any jurisdiction that was used by non-residents to obtain a divorce, regardless of the size of the jurisdiction or cases filed therein. Moving through the limited secondary sources about the history of American divorce practices, and beginning to hone in on the concept of Oklahoma Territory as a significant divorce mill, I examined Carroll Wright’s, A Report on Marriage and Divorce in the United States, 1867 to 1886. The document is over one-thousand pages long, and is primarily lists of numbers about American marriage and divorce statistics. The Wright Report, as it is known, was the most pertinent document aiding to the research conducted for this thesis. In regards to documents influential to research about Oklahoma Territory !iv and its divorce rates, the second publication of divorce research, Special Reports: Marriage and Divorce, 1876-1906, published by the Bureau of the Census in 1909, had the most information to reveal; for Oklahoma Territory was not in existence for the publication of the Wright Report. The second federal report picked up where the first had ended, and was a compilation of the two studies. Moving deeper into my research, I studied divorce records at the Logan County Courthouse in Guthrie, taking my exploration to a much more personal level. Reading through the petitions of men and women from the Victorian Era allowed me to see that divorce is not the modern paradox that we have been led to believe. In addition, the growth and resolution of the American Divorce Crisis was so reliant on these records I was examining, which I found fascinating. During my study, I also surveyed both local and eastern newspapers from the time to gain a sense of divorce reception both in areas such as Guthrie, and eastern cities such as New York or Philadelphia, where many divorce-seekers were drawn from. In the first chapter of this thesis, I will examine the divorce debate in the United States from its infancy, setting a framework for its progression until formal conclusion of the divorce reform movement in 1906. The first chapter also contains a historiographical review of scholarly works on American divorce, the Victorian Divorce Crisis, and the mill that prospered in Guthrie. The second chapter provides an overview of early divorce mills prior to Oklahoma Territory. Chapter three begins with an analysis of the Wright Report, and the findings that it brought to national attention. Moving through the Land Run of 1889 and the creation of Oklahoma Territory, a significant portion of this chapter looks at Guthrie’s early years as !v a divorce haven, until 1893 and the beginning of divorce reform discussion at both the territorial and federal level. Chapter four starts in 1893 and proceeds through 1897, which was the end of Oklahoma Territory’s reign as a divorce mill, and examines the process of legislative reform in the territorial courts that eventually led to the decline. The final chapter of this study looks at the divorce reform movement that occurred as a result of the escalation in the divorce debate in the last half of the nineteenth century. The movement began prior to Oklahoma Territory and continued after its demise, eventually leading to the meeting of the NCUDL in 1906. The meeting marked the end of the crisis. The records that I was able to locate, in conjunction with the relatively limited information about American divorce history and particularly divorce mills, compelled me to address the topic of Oklahoma Territory as a significant mill and catalyst in bringing an end to the Divorce Crisis of the nineteenth century. The information that I have compiled will hopefully not only prove that Guthrie was an important divorce mill in the Victorian Divorce Crisis narrative, but will also create a conversation about further research on the topic, which remains fairly unearthed. !vi Acknowledgements There are several individuals that I would like to thank for helping to bring this thesis to completion. The first being to my thesis committee; Dr. Patricia Loughlin, Dr. Mark Janzen and Ms. Heidi Vaughn. Not only for their encouragement, but for their patience and support while I took time for myself to battle ovarian cancer. I am also grateful to Dr. Kenneth Brown for his guidance during the early portion of my writing experience and through my hardship. I am grateful to the Oklahoma Territorial Museum and its staff. At one time my colleagues, I would like to thank Nathan Turner, Valerie Duncan, Erin Brown and Michael Williams, for their support in discussing and aiding in my initial research. I would also like to thank the staff of the Logan County Courthouse who allowed me access to the territorial records that they house and the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.

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